Computer telephony integration hotelling method and system

ABSTRACT

A method and system to dynamically associate a workstation with a teleset. Data related to the call are transferred to the workstation during the call. Forming the dynamic association between the workstation and the teleset can include determining a hostname for the workstation, searching for the hostname in configuration data, and, if the hostname is found, dynamically associating the workstation with a teleset associated with the hostname. A server can be notified to transfer data associated with a call on the teleset to the workstation.

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/541,379, entitled “Computer Telephony Integration Hotelling Method and System,” filed Mar. 31, 2000 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,577,728, and naming as the inventors Kuang-Yang Huang, Matthew S. Malden, Henry D. Jay, and Anil K. Annadata.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to network routing in a Computer-Telephony Integration (CTI) system where users, for example, users at multiple locations, are enabled to share and transfer a CTI session.

BACKGROUND

Companies are deploying mobile employees and multiple shifts of employees. Mobile employees usually have laptops and/or handheld devices as their workstations and may also have a dedicated desk at the office. However, there are occasions where these employees will be at another company location and will plug into the network, using an available teleset. Employees are given the freedom to move about within the facilities and chose a desk to work from. At each desk are a network connection and a teleset. Some desks may have workstations for use. Other companies are deploying multiple shifts of employee that use the same physical workstations and telesets as the other shifts. These employees are usually assigned a workspace for their shift or they may select any open workspace.

To enable these different types of deployments, a clear need exists for a CTI (computer telephony integration) system that can support non-secure CTI enabled telesets for all of the call center agents independently of physical location and that can also support CTI users to share enabled telesets and to transparently pass a caller or issue from one to another agent.

SUMMARY

The invention described herein relates to a system and method for CTI implemented “hotelling.” Hotelling is the functionality of sharing CTI enabled telesets among multiple users. Users may be assigned to the telesets, or they may be sharing the same teleset, or the teleset may not be assigned to a particular person. Specifically, the invention provides a method and system where each agent or user has a unique login ID and password to access the CTI features from any known CTI enabled teleset. This enables a CTI user or agent to log in at any workstation in a network and utilize the system with the CTI enabled teleset, and also to transfer a CTI transaction or interaction to another CTI user or agent.

The method and system of the invention utilizes a computer telephony integration (CTI) system with a plurality of CTI-enabled telesets, each connected to an ACD or telephony switch which is connected to a CTI middleware server, and a plurality of workstations connected to the server. The system is configured so that each workstation and each teleset is identified to the server by a unique ID. This allows a user to log into the system with a user ID from any workstation and thereafter utilize computer telephony integration with a CTI enabled teleset. Additionally, a user can transfer a call, including the workstation screen information associated with the call, to another user at another workstation.

The CTI hotelling functionality also enables an agent to use any host (using their unique agent id) to login to the configuration. It also enables an administrator to use an administration tool to enable hotelling for a specific machine. If the machine is enabled for hotelling, the program will use the “hostname” to get the CTI configuration. If the machine is not enabled for hotelling, the program will use the agent default teleset to get the CTI configuration.

FIGURE

The invention is shown and illustrated by the FIGURE appended hereto.

FIG. 1 shows a hotelling enabled server with two two hotelling enabled clients, one non-enabled client, a database server, application servers, a CTI middleware server, an ACD/telephony switch, and customers connected through the public switched telephone network.

OVERVIEW

Hotelling is a powerful CTI tool that permits sharing of physical resources by multiple users. Users can log into the server from any enabled workstation and utilize the CTI system with the correct teleset. The teleset ID is determined by the machine name. Moreover, hotelling allows transferring calls to the right teleset by checking runtime information.

The capability that the method and system of the invention provides to a mobile user is illustrated by multiple examples. In one scenario, a call center agents works at a single call center, using a different computer, workspace and teleset each day. In a second scenario, a travelling consultant is moving to different locations, using different computers in each location. In still a third scenario, the Consultant is using the same computer (e.g. a laptop computer) and logging in from different locations on different days or times of day.

In all three scenarios, the employee has a teleset and extension assigned for inbound calls at his permanent office workspace. While at his desk the employee touches base with his contacts for one of the many projects that he is involved with.

Consultant achieves this by either (1) plugging his laptop into the corporate network, or (2) using the workstation and CTI teleset at the hotelling location, and logging on to his company's CTI enabled Server. He navigates to the “My Contacts” view of the “Contacts” screen. From this view, he drills down on the hyperlink of the Name of the project in which he is interested. This will bring the employee to the Contacts view and he right mouse-clicks on the person he would like to contact. The floating right mouse window is presented and employee selects Make Call from the window. The CTI method and system of the invention initiates the call to the contact for the employee. The employee picks up his telephone handset or talks in his hands-free headset when the phone is answered by his contact. During his conversation, employee has navigated to areas of interest within the hotelling enabled application, and especially a CTI customer relationship management application. The conversation reaches a point where employee needs to conference in another employee, so he selects the Conference Transfer button on the CTI Toolbar and is presented with a Begin Conference pop-up box. Employee types in the name of the person he wants to conference, performs the search and selects the Call button to initiate the conference call. The CTI method and system initiates the conference call by placing the current call on hold, dialing the number, and forwards Employee existing view to the fellow consultant to be conferenced. The view is forwarded so that the person joining the conference has the appropriate information to participate in the call. When the person joining the call accepts the call from the CTI Toolbar, the voice connection between the parties is established, and the view from Employee is presented to the recipient.

After making a round of calls from his desk with his CTI enabled application, Employee heads to another location for a meeting and to continue making his calls. He arrives at the other location and finds an empty workspace with a connection to the corporate network and a phone that has been CTI enabled for the method and system of the invention. Again Employee plugs his laptop into the corporate network or uses a workstation already installed, and logs on to his hotelling enabled application and the company's CTI Server and continues, as if he was at his permanent desk, to make calls to his contacts with CTI. In these two scenarios, Employee goes to a different location and (1) uses the same computer, but logs in from a different location, and (2) uses a different computer.

While Employee is in the office, he is able to accept inbound calls from his workspace with the CTI toolbar, menu items, or shortcuts. This is true whether he is at his permanent desk or at a desk with a CTI enabled teleset in another office.

The method and system of the invention is also useful to roaming CTI users. Consider a Corporation, that has sales offices throughout the world. Many of their sales staff visit their sales offices as needed. Therefore they do not have assigned workspaces at their sales offices. Each workspace in the sales office is equipped with a PC workstation and a CTI enabled teleset. The sales team members do not have dedicated telesets and extensions for inbound calls but are dependent on the workspace they are using at a specific time. The sales team members are assigned an extension. Calls to sales team members are usually directed to their voicemail boxes, unless they are in the office and logged into the server, in which case, calls are directed to the appropriate CTI enabled teleset.

When members of the sales team visit their sales office, they would select a vacant workspace. The sales team members are not tied to a specific workspace and are free to select and use any available workspace in the office.

Consider a sales team member who comes into the office to make follow up calls to contacts associated with his accounts. He logs on, with his own unique ID and password, to the company's CTI enabled server, navigates to the Accounts, screen and clicks on the hyperlink of the account of interest. He then selects contacts from the Account Contact view that he wants to follow up with. Once the individual is selected, he clicks the right mouse button on the contact and selects the Make Call option from the pop up menu. The CTI Server dials the contact and the sales team member picks up the telephone handset when the phone is ringing.

While the sales team member is in the office, he is able to accept inbound calls from his workspace with the CTI toolbar, menu items, and/or shortcuts.

Shared telesets and workstations among CTI users is another aspect of the invention. Consider a Corporation that provides a 24/7 customer contact center to service their customers. The days are partitioned into three eight-hour shifts of three hundred agents per shift. At each of the three hundred workspaces is a PC workstation and a CTI enabled teleset. For each shift, agents are assigned to specific workspaces. Thus, three different agents throughout a 24-hour period share each workspace. These three agents also share the same permanent telesets for inbound non-ACD calls.

Agents log in to the server with their own unique ID and password at their assigned workspace. The agents automatically log into their ACD queues at start up and perform telephony controls from the CTI toolbar, the CTI Menu, and the right mouse menus. Current views are also transferred when calls are transferred to another CTI user.

While the agents are at their workspace, they may accept inbound calls on their non-ACD line with the CTI toolbar, menu items, and shortcuts.

It is seen that the method and system of the invention provide the user with a high degree of CTI connectivity and a high degree of CTI flexibility.

The following defined terms are used in this document.

Automated Call Distributor (ACD)—An Automated Call Distributor may be a component of a telephony switch or it may be an external server. ACDs are features that route an inbound call from the telephony switch's point of view. Agents, groups/queues and routing steps are defined within the ACD for call routing purposes. This is usually confined to one telephony switch. Whereas, CTI can enable the routing of calls and data to multiple switches.

Call Center Agents—Users of the system who receive and make calls, and track responses/opportunities pertaining to campaigns

Computer Telephony Integration (CTI)—Integration of telephony networks and data networks to allow integrated and seamless telephony control from a desktop application

Hotelling—The functionality of sharing CTI enabled telesets among multiple users. Users may be assigned to the telesets, or they may be sharing the same teleset, or the teleset may not be assigned to a particular person.

Teleset—An augmented telephone with CTI buttons and features, connected to and integrated with a CTI enabled server through an ACD (or switch) for use in call centers.

The interconnections and architecture of these various elements is illustrated in FIG. 1. FIG. 1 shows a hotelling enabled client-server system with a database server, 21, serving three clients, 11, 12, and 13. Each client has a teleset and a workstation. Two of the clients, 11, and 13, are hotelling enabled, and one client, 12, is not hotelling enabled. The client workstations are connected to the database server, 21, the application servers, 31, and the CTI middleware server, 51, through a LAN. The telesets are connected to the CTI middleware server, 51, through an ACD/Telephony Switch, 41, to the CTI middleware server, 51. The customers, 101, are connected to the system through a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), 111, and the ACD/Telephony Switch, 41.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Hotelling is a powerful CTI tool that permits sharing of physical resources by multiple users. Users can log into the server from any enabled workstation and utilize the CTI system with the correct teleset. The teleset ID is determined by the machine name. Moreover, hotelling allows transferring calls to the right teleset by checking runtime information. The CTI method and system of the invention provides computer telephony integration to support a broad variety of Automated Call Distributors (ACD) and telephony switches to allow rapid deployments of call center technology.

FIG. 1 shows a hotelling enabled CTI system with a hotelling enabled CTI server 21, three CTI terminals, 11, 12, 13, and CTI and hotelling enabled telesets. Hotelling

The CTI method and system of the invention supports hotelling and multi-shift call center deployments by providing the ability for employees to share workspaces while providing universal access to the server application with the associated teleset enabled via CTI. As a result, call centers can successfully implement 24×7 inbound and outbound call center operations while leveraging shared hardware technology and resources. In addition, the CTI method and system of the invention allows call centers to implement flexible staffing strategies by allowing agents to rotate workspaces based on work schedules and workspace availability.

CTI hotelling features include support for multiple users to share the same CTI enabled teleset, support for any agent to use a single login to access Siebel CTI from any hotel-enabled teleset, and reduced CTI administration by not requiring association of every employee for hotelling-enabled telesets

If a workstation is hotelling enabled, the application will use the hostname to find the teleset, and the configuration.

In the prior CTI architectures, there is no link between teleset and hostname. However, in the method and system of the present invention a HOST field is created the in All Teleset applet or database fields, to create the link between the teleset and the hostname.

When the CTI enabled application starts up, it checks that the agent is a valid CTI agent, that is, a valid entry in the appropriate field of the All Teleset applet or database. If there is not a valid CTI agent in this field, CTI will normally be disabled. If there is the valid agent, the application will use the local hostname to find the teleset from a system configuration table, such as a S_(—)CTI_(—)TELESET table. However, when data is found, hotelling is enabled for this workstation, and the application will use this teleset data to find the configuration.

Since the hotelling feature creates runtime data, a user does not have a static link with any specific teleset. Therefore the CTI method and system of the invention creates the mapping between hostname and agent for providing dynamic information. The system stores the hostname to a database table, as the S_(—)CTI_(—)USER table in Siebel. When the application starts up successfully, it stores the hostname to S_(—)CTI_(—)USER table by username. When the application is shutting down, it removes the hostname from the database.

When an administrator enables the hotelling feature for a machine, the administrator specifies the hostname for a teleset in the All Telesets applet in the All Telesets view. The Administrator can also use Agents View to monitor/modify the agent-host runtime relationship.

Algorithms and procedures

The following pseudo code describes procedures on the driver manager.

Startup. During startup the system checks for a valid user while marking a hotelling flag “false.” If no valid user is found, the system updates the hostname field for tracking and hostname. If a valid user is found, the hotelling flag is set to “true” and hotelling is enabled. The following pseudo code is illustrative:

-   -   Check that employee is a valid CTI user.     -   Mark the hotelling flag to be false.     -   Use hostname to check the S_(—)CTI_(—)TELESET table to find         valid hotelling teleset.     -   If found, this machine supports hotelling and is open to every         agent. Set hotelling flag to “true ”. Update the hostname field         in S_(—)CTI_(—)USER for tracking agent/hostname.     -   If not found, update the hostname field in S_(—)CTI_(—)USER. Use         the default teleset for the valid CTI user.

Shutdown:

-   -   Remove hostname from S_(—)CTI_(—)USER table.

When calling or transferring to an employee using a hotelling enabled teleset, the system searches for the hostname in the S_(—)CTI_(—)USER table, database, or applet, by user name. If an entry is not found, the work phone number is used. If found, this extension is used with the hostname in the application.

-   -   Find the hostname from S_(—)CTI_(—)USER table by user name.     -   If not found, use work phone in Employee.     -   If found, get the extension by hostname.

While the invention has been described with respect to certain preferred embodiments and exemplifies, it is not intended to limit the scope of the invention thereby, but solely by the claims appended hereto. 

1. A method of using a computer telephony integration system comprising a plurality of CTI-enabled telesets connected to a switch, the switch being connected to a CTI middleware server; and a plurality of workstations connected to the server, said method comprising: identifying a teleset of said telesets to the server as a hotelling enabled teleset by transmitting a unique ID to the server, wherein said identifying comprises: receiving a hostname; determining whether said hostname is included in a set of system configuration associations; and recognizing a teleset associated with said hostname as being a hotelling enabled teleset if said hostname is determined to be included in said set of system configuration associations.
 2. The method of claim 1 further comprising: logging into the system with a user ID from a first workstation of the workstations and thereafter utilizing computer telephony integration with the hotelling enabled teleset.
 3. The method of claim 1 further comprising: transferring a call from the teleset to a second teleset; and transferring information displayed at the first workstation to a second workstation associated with the second teleset.
 4. The method of claim 3 wherein the second teleset is hotelling enabled.
 5. The method of claim 3 wherein the second teleset is not hotelling enabled.
 6. A computer telephony method of transferring from a first agent at a first location to a second agent at a second location, comprising: identifying a hostname associated with the second location; determining, based on said hostname, whether the second location is hotelling enabled, wherein said determining comprises: determining whether said hostname is referenced in a set of system configuration associations; and if the second location is determined to be hotelling enabled, then transferring call data to a workstation at the second location.
 7. The computer telephony method of claim 6, wherein said set of system configuration associations is a system configuration table.
 8. A system comprising: a plurality of CTI-enabled telesets connected to a switch, wherein the switch is connected to a CTI middleware server; a plurality of workstations connected to the server, wherein at least one workstation comprises: identifying means for identifying a teleset to the server as a hotelling enabled teleset by transmitting a unique ID to the server, wherein said identifying means comprise: receiving means for receiving instructions to receive a hostname; determining means for determining whether said hostname is included in a set of system configuration associations; and recognizing means for recognizing a teleset associated with said hostname as being a hotelling enabled teleset if said hostname is determined to be included in said set of system configuration associations.
 9. The system of claim 8 further comprising: logging means for logging into the system with a user ID from a first workstation of the workstations and thereafter utilizing computer telephony integration with the hotelling enabled teleset.
 10. A computer telephony integration system comprising: a plurality of CTI-enabled telesets connected to a switch, wherein the switch is connected to a CTI middleware server; a plurality of workstations connected to the server, wherein at least one workstation comprises: a processor for executing instructions; and a memory for storing the instructions, wherein the instructions comprise: identifying instructions to identify a teleset of said telesets to the server as a hotelling enabled teleset by transmitting a unique ID to the server, wherein said identifying instructions comprise: receiving instructions to receive a hostname; determining instructions to determine whether said hostname is included in a set of system configuration associations; and recognizing instructions to recognize a teleset associated with said hostname as being a hotelling enabled teleset if said hostname is determined to be included in said set of system configuration associations.
 11. The system of claim 10 wherein the instructions further comprise: logging instructions to log into the system with a user ID from a first workstation of the workstations and thereafter utilizing computer telephony integration with the hotelling enabled teleset.
 12. A computer readable medium comprising: identifying instructions to identify a teleset to a server as a hotelling enabled teleset by transmitting a unique ID to the server; receiving instructions to receive a hostname; determining instructions to determine whether said hostname is included in a set of system configuration associations; and recognizing instructions to recognize a teleset associated with said hostname as being a hotelling enabled teleset if said hostname is determined to be included in said set of system configuration associations.
 13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12 further comprising: logging instructions to log into the system with a user ID from a first workstation of the workstations and thereafter utilizing computer telephony integration with the hotelling enabled teleset.
 14. A system for transferring from a first agent at a first location to a second agent at a second location, the system comprising: identifying means for identifying a hostname associated with the second location; first determining means for determining, based on said hostname, whether the second location is hotelling enabled; second determining means for determining whether said hostname is referenced in a set of system configuration associations; and transferring means for transferring call data to a workstation at the second location.
 15. The system of claim 14, wherein said set of system configuration associations is a system configuration table.
 16. A system for transferring from a first agent at a first location to a second agent at a second location, the system comprising: an identifying module to identify a hostname associated with the second location; a first determining module to determine, based on said hostname, whether the second location is hotelling enabled; a second determining module to determine whether said hostname is referenced in a set of system configuration associations; and a transferring module to transfer call data to a workstation at the second location.
 17. The system of claim 16, wherein said set of system configuration associations is a system configuration table.
 18. A computer-readable medium comprising: identifying instructions to identify a hostname associated with a location; first determining instructions to determine, based on said hostname, whether the location is hotelling enabled; second determining instructions to determine whether said hostname is referenced in a set of system configuration associations; and transferring instructions to transfer call data to a workstation at the location.
 19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein said set of system configuration associations is a system configuration table. 